Chapter 21 A Bountiful Harvest

Chapter 21 A Bountiful Harvest

Fortunately, Jiang Yuan's hard work paid off. When he came down the mountain at noon, he was carrying five heavy strings of pheasants and rabbits.

Others might only have a vague impression of "a lot" at first glance, but Jiang Yuan had quickly counted them before going down the mountain. So when Xie Wanniang exclaimed in shock, "So many?!", he immediately replied to her calmly, "Nine pheasants and twelve rabbits."

Xie Wanniang sensed a faint hint of smugness in his tone, and couldn't help but smile with her eyes crinkling.

She scooped a bucket of hot water for Jiang Yuan, saying, "You should wash up, change your clothes, and change your shoes first."

Jiang Yuan nodded. "What are we having for lunch?" He could already smell the delicious aroma of meat!

Xie Wanniang didn't hide anything from him, "I'm planning to add two poached eggs and a big bowl of spinach to the bone broth mixed grain noodles."

Jiang Yuan took a deep breath. "I'll be right there!"

After saying that, he picked up the bucket and quickly returned to his room.

Hurry up and finish washing up, then come out and eat!

Seeing his eagerness, Xie Wanniang smiled and went into the kitchen. She first cracked two eggs into the cooked bone broth, and after a while, she slowly put in the prepared mixed grain noodles.

When the poached eggs and multigrain noodles were almost cooked, Xie Wanniang put the fresh, tender green spinach into the pot.

She had just finished preparing lunch when Jiang Yuan came out carrying a bucket of water. He had changed into clean clothes and his usual cloth shoes with multi-layered soles.

He soaked his dirty clothes in a bucket of water, and took his muddy straw sandals directly to the vicinity of the well.

After washing his hands, Jiang Yuan ran to the kitchen to help Xie Wanniang prepare the lunch, fetch chopsticks and meat sauce jars, and scoop out pickled radishes and cucumbers.

Xie Wanniang has a limited appetite. Even though she was busy all morning, she could only eat two small bowls of bone broth mixed grain and spinach noodles.

Jiang Yuan was different. He was at the age where a boy could eat his father out of house and home, and he had also used up a lot of energy hunting that morning.

After Xie Wanniang put down her chopsticks, Jiang Yuan ate all the remaining spinach, noodles, meat sauce, and pickled vegetables. He even drank the last bit of bone broth.

Jiang Yuan, feeling exceptionally happy after a satisfying meal, was about to clear the dishes when Chen Moqin, the second son of Chen Lizheng next door, came running to the gate of his yard.

After the world returned to peace, the villagers resumed their habit of not leaving the door bolted during the day unless there were only young children, young women, or young wives at home. As a result, Chen Moqin didn't even need to knock; he simply poked his head and half his body through the doorway.

He waved vigorously at Jiang Yuan, who was carrying a bowl out of the main room, "Yuan, come quick! Shuanzi's father is going to beat his sister to death. I'm going to call my father. Go and help stop him."

Jiang Yuan was taken aback. "Okay."

He rushed to the kitchen, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and was about to leave when he saw Xie Wanniang standing at the door waiting for him with a padlock.

"I'll go take a look too."

Since she would be living in the village permanently, she would inevitably have to interact with the villagers. Therefore, ever since she suggested that Jiang Yuan distribute dried fish to the villagers living nearby, she had been intentionally trying to increase her own visibility.

Jiang Yuan took the lock and went out with Xie Wanniang.

Because of the urgency of the situation, the two of them ran forward, running out of the yard and then running to Shuanzi's house, which was two houses away from theirs.

Shuanzi was the eldest son in his family. Besides him, his parents had another son and three daughters.

His family was very poor, firstly because there were many children in the family, and secondly because Shuanzi's mother was weak and unable to do heavy work.

In addition, Shuanzi, who is a year older than Chen Moqin, got married the winter before last, and his wife became pregnant at the end of last autumn. It looks like his family will be adding another member to the family.

His family spent a lot of money on his wedding. His wife is pregnant and needs to eat well. After the baby is born, there will be another mouth to feed in the family, and his family will still have to spend money.

More importantly, his second brother is already fourteen years old this year, and he will have to get married in three or four years. Once he gets married, he will have more children, which will cost a lot of money.

His family lived a hard life, often eating coarse food and going hungry. Even so, he used his younger sister's dowry to pay for his wedding.

Yes, his younger sister is getting married soon, and the wedding date is set for after the autumn harvest this year.

As for the money for his second brother's future wedding, his parents planned to use his second sister's dowry to pay for it. However, besides this money, their family also had other expenses.

The largest sum, of course, was the money spent on building the house.

His house was dilapidated and small, and it was not only about to become too small for his family to live in, but the walls were also slightly cracked and drafty.

If it rains, it's even worse. When it's pouring rain outside, it drizzles inside their houses, making it incredibly uncomfortable.

Therefore, at the latest by next spring, their family will have to rebuild their house.

In order to save as much money as possible and borrow as little as possible, apart from his wife who was pregnant, the rest of his family rarely ate grains except during holidays, spring planting and autumn harvest, let alone fine grains, meat, eggs and tofu.

There are homegrown fruits and vegetables on both sides, as well as wild vegetables, wild fruits, elm seeds, and mushrooms brought back from the mountains... Whether they are fresh or dried and stored, with rice soup and vegetable soup, they can barely fill one's stomach.

The older members of the family, including his second sister and second brother, were able to endure it, struggling to eat every day. However, his five-year-old younger sister couldn't resist and ate two fresh, hot raw eggs yesterday and this morning.

His mother was always sickly and had a soft heart. When she found out, she would just scold him a few times because she felt sorry for the eggs. His father, however, believed in the saying "spare the rod and spoil the child." His younger sister had twice ignored his mother's attempts to stop her and quickly cracked open raw eggs and put them in her mouth. In his father's eyes, this was already excessively naughty.

But his little sister didn't admit her mistake after being scolded by her father. Instead, she looked aggrieved and said that she didn't want to, but she just couldn't help wanting to drink eggs whenever she saw them.

The little girl looked pitiful, with tears welling up in her eyes. It was clear that she was telling the truth, but the problem was that her father simply couldn't accept her reason.

In his father's eyes, his younger sister was just greedy and didn't understand how difficult things were at home. In other words, she needed to be taught a lesson and was just asking for a beating.

The enraged middle-aged man forgot that these weren't his two tough and resilient sons, but his youngest daughter who had never eaten well since childhood, was thin and pale, and he grabbed a broom to hit her.

His wife and children, seeing that his expression was not right, were afraid that he would hit the girl too hard and cause her serious injury, so they rushed over to persuade him and stop him.

Unfortunately, the little girl was completely oblivious to the situation. Seeing her father's expression, she was not only frightened but also felt even more wronged. She burst into tears, babbling on and on about how aggrieved she was.